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Monday, March 1, 2010

Bribery – It works!

I need to start off by saying I taught a classroom of 20-24 2-year-olds and did a LOT of potty training… but nothing compares to trying to get your own kid to do it! Here is the bath we took…

Potty Training Solution #1 (Age 2y) – We started taking Taylor to the bathroom just several times a day to get her adjusted to sitting there. 90% of the time she cried and yelled. Since we didn’t want to make it a negative experience we gave up for awhile and figured we could start up again soon.

Potty Training Solution #2 (Age 2y 6m) – We started the routine again when we realized she was actually willing to sit on the “adult” toilet instead of the “potty”. However, this too only lasted a couple of weeks before the screaming and crying started.

Potty Training Solution #3 (Age 2y 8m) – Started with candies every time she TRIED (jelly beans, M&M’s etc). She’d sit for a minute and get up. We’d put her diaper on her and she’d tell us 2 minutes later she peed ::sigh::

Potty Training Solution #4 (Age 2y 10m) – The “just pee on yourself” technique. We’d let her run around in just a dress or something… that didn’t work. She had no shame. In fact, on one occasion she came up to us and said “I poopoo in the grass” ::even bigger sigh::

Potty Training Solution #5 (Age 3y) – The sticker chart approach/reward approach. By this time Taylor was not peeing IN the bath so we’d keep her in there extra long in the evening until she’d tell us she had to go. So she was going at least once a day. A row of 10 boxes: 5 boxes meant she got a “big” candy (or the fun sized bars as apposed to her usually single M&M) and 10 boxes meant she’d get to play a board game with us (new obsession with CandyLand). We also bought those SUPER padded undies for her… this increased her average successful potty going to about 2-3 times a day, but still accident 2-3 times a day.

Potty Training Solution #6 (Age 3y – 1m) – Pure Bribery! We bought her this little Sesame Street computer game and every time she goes potty she get’s to play for 10-15 minutes. It is a number/letter/shape/color game so I don’t feel that bad about letting her play so much, only a little. Since we brought it home she has gone potty 1-3 times every 2 hours AND only one “accident” last night, but we did put her in a diaper before bed so she didn’t really pee on anything… I think we found our trick with her!